100 Little-Known Facts About Comic Books - Part 3

Final Facts

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We cap off our series of 100 little-known facts about comic books.

You can brush up on part one and part two before diving into the final third of our compendium of comic book ephemera, and get ready to learn some things you never knew about the people behind some of history's greatest comic books.

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On May 10-12, 2002, artist John Romita Jr. set a Guinness World Record by penciling Spider-Man sketches and signing autographs in Times Square for 51 hours and 26 minutes consecutively. His efforts raised more than $10,000 to benefit his niece, who suffered from brain cancer.

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People would occasionally make it through the Marvel switchboard to talk to editor Ralph Macchio, thinking he was the Karate Kid actor of the same name. Macchio once spent 15 minutes on the phone with a fan reading fake lines from a made-up Karate Kid Part 5 script… even though only three original Karate Kid movies with Macchio were ever made.

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Artist Salvador Larroca built a home in the shape of a “4” and has a large 4-shaped “porthole” window upstairs because he made a lot of money drawing Fantastic Four owing to U.S. dollar-to-Spanish exchange rate at the time.

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Marvel entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 1996, but still had a company Christmas party, even after massive layoffs. The company hired armed guards for the party for fear of laid-off employees retaliating.

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Marc Silvestri and his brother posed as room service workers to get into DC editor Joe Orlando’s hotel room at the 1980 Chicago Comicon. Silvestri got his portfolio looked at, and walked out with his first professional assignment - a six-page story in House of Mystery.

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Two Witchblade fans took out a full-page ad costing $5000 in the Sept. 16, 2002 Variety imploring a new network to pick up the Witchblade TV show after TNT canceled it owing to lead actress Yancy Butler’s alcoholism.

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When he was drawing Sea Devils for DC, artist Russ Heath was also the president of the Newark Skin-Divers Club. He has his SCUBA mask to this day.

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Colin Grant, the storyboard artist for the Daredevil movie, also had a one-line appearance as a security guard. It’s seen only seen in the director's cut.

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Artist Scott Benefiel is also an actor. He’s appeared on the TV series Silk Stalkings and Tremors.

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Legendary comic strip artist Stan Drake used to keep one foot in a bucket of ice water to keep him awake while working overnight on tight deadlines.

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Famed Flash Gordon cartoonist Alex Raymond died when he crashed Stan Drake's 1956 Corvette into a tree. Drake was also in the car, but was thrown free of the crash.

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When they wanted to get a new foosball table in 2002, Top Cow Productions had artists draw on their old one and sold via an eBay.com auction. It went for $911. The winning bidder? Mike Choi, who picked it up, got a portfolio review, and soon started his own comic art career.

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Hero Initiative did a bowling night fundraiser at the 2012 Emerald City Comic Con. Artists such as Chris Moreno, Mike Allred and Matt Wagner did custom bowling pins as prizes.

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Longtime DC Editor Julius Schwartz was a literary agent before the comic book business. He was Ray Bradbury’s first agent, and H. P. Lovecraft’s last.

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In 1977, Phil Seuling of Seagate Distributing ordered 1000 copies of Cerebus #1 from Dave Sim. Dave had 1000 copies with a small printer error, a black smudge on Cerebus’ hand and his sword’s hilt. Seagate was geographically farther away than Sim’s other distributors, and reasoning that that Seuling might not even see a clean copy, he sent those to Seagate. Sim has always referred to the smudged copies as “The Seuling Copies.”

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Beau Smith created Boof and the Bruise Crew back in the heyday of Image Comics in 1994 because Walmart was hungry for all-ages fare that was less edgy than typical image books. Smith sold 350,000 copies each of all 12 issues to Walmart.

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When Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996, one of its 20 largest creditors was artist Carlos Pacheco. Another was Extreme Studios, as they had not yet been fully paid for Heroes Reborn.

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Malibu Comics tried to get Pez to license their characters on Pez dispensers. It never happened, but Barry Windsor-Smith did some cool Rune Pez art.

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In 2003, Marvel received more than $1 million in Heroclix royalties alone.

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In 2003, attendance at the Orlando MegaCon was 16,800. In 2004, it grew to 20,500. By 2014, it reached 69,000, and broke 100,000 in 2016.

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Former Superman artist Jon Bogdanove named his son Kal-El, Superman’s Kryptonian name. Kevin Smith named his daughter Harley Quinn Smith, after the DC Comics character.

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Bill Sienkiewicz' full name is Boleslav Felix Robert Sienkiewicz.

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Pop Mhan’s real name is Kochakorn Mhanaojyakorn.

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On Saturday, July 6, 2002 at the Wizard World Chicago convention, Chaos! Comics publisher Brian Pulido shaved off his goatee and sold it as part of a charity auction. It went for $50.

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Marvel briefly changed the name of the Black Panther to the Black Leopard circa 1972 to avoid any perceived association with the Black Panther party.

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Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini met and eventually got married after they started corresponding after Wendy (nee Fletcher) had a letter published in Silver Surfer #5.

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1950s Atlas/Marvel artist Joe Maneely died tragically in 1958 when he fell between the cars of a moving commuter train and was crushed.

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Stan Lee’s famous “Stan’s Soapbox” column ran in Marvel Comics from 1967-1980. Owing to deadlines, Editor Roy Thomas filled in for two columns, which were titled “Roy’s Rostrum.”

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Michael Avon Oeming actually attended a furries convention to see if that crowd would have any interest in his Mice Templar book. They had very little interest.

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Artist Dale Keown grew up in rural western Canada, and could occasionally pull in a TV station from the U.S., which came in very fuzzy and erratic. He would catch brief snippets of the Incredible Hulk TV show, but rarely saw a full episode. He became obsessed with learning more, and eventually became Marvel’s Incredible Hulk artist.

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Few realize it, but Neal Adams is the inker on Marvel Comics’ Micronauts #7 cover. Adams did not sign his name as he typically does. Golden would sign his name with a stylized “G,” so Adams signed this with an interlocking stylized “A.”

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All 12 original Watchmen covers sold as a group at a Sotheby’s auction in 1993 for $17,250.

The cover to Watchmen #1 alone sold for $155,350 at a Heritage auction in 2013.

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“The first comic I ever purchased with my own cash was a copy of Avengers #57, ‘Even an Android Can Cry,’” he says. “That one comic book is responsible for the direction my life took, and ended up in the funny book biz. One crying android, and my whole life took a left turn.”